Thursday, September 24, 2009

Just When You Thought Marvel Couldn't Get Stupider/More Evil Regarding Marketing To Women & Girls...

Yes, they come in girl's sizes too! So you too can begin training your elementary-school aged daughter for a high-profile career in the exciting world of exotic dancing!

The best part about this? The descriptions on the site!

Inspired by some of the most well known Marvel super heroes we have created a line of fashion forward costumes for women and girls who have the desire to be fun and playful for Halloween.

Because why would you want to dress like one of our many wonderful female heroes when you could be dressing like a sexy Captain America?!

And as far as "fun and playful" goes, from the look of it I'd say "Emma" is strictly play for pay.

Great to team up with a few of your fellow super heroines to save the world.

Unless you're dressed up as one of the two characters who, at their best, have always been anti-heroes if not outright villains. But who cares as long as you're having sudsy fun?!

You know, I really have to tip my hat to whoever designed these. It takes some doing to create a line of superhero-inspired costumes where the Black Cat and White Queen outfits are the LEAST trashy while somehow being completely inaccurate to the original character design. But damn me if costume designer/manufacturer Disguise didn't manage it!

Why must there be SKIRTS on everything? Is second-ass spandex not "girly" or "sexy" enough for these douchebags? The only one that looks even remotely like the original are the ones for Emma because that's how Emma dresses. Why tramp up everything else when I can just pick any outfit she's ever worn?Douchebags.

Yet another example of Joe Q not getting it?As much blame as Joey Q deserves for the tone of Marvel's comics, I'm not sure how much power, if any, the Editor-In-Chief has over merchandising. So I don't think he can be blamed for this.Rest assured though; he doesn't get it.

Why must there be SKIRTS on everything? Well, then how else will you know it's a girl's costume? (sarcasm)Is second-ass spandex not "girly" or "sexy" enough for these douchebags? Probably not. But I don't think douchebags is the right word for whoever was responsible for this. The word 'douchebag' implies that they might have gotten near a woman at some point... :) The only one that looks even remotely like the original are the ones for Emma because that's how Emma dresses. Why tramp up everything else when I can just pick any outfit she's ever worn? I know. It's amazing that their White Queen costume is actually more modest than most of Emma's costumes! Because of the skirt!And if you think about it, it's even crazier that White Queen is one of the two characters they felt a need to create an officially endorsed costume for! She's actually one of the easiest characters to cosplay, assuming you have a decent body and/or no sense of shame. Just get a sexy white lingerie outfit, suitable for your average Rocky Horror showing and some double-stick tape. :)

these are less Halloween and more role play/fantasy for the boyfriend/girlfriend depending on which way you play.Two problems with that.1. The flavor text on the site specifically advertises these as "fashion forward costumes for women and girls who have the desire to be fun and playful for Halloween". Forgive me for taking them at their word and thinking that these costumes were intended for women and girls at Halloween. You know, since that's what the bloody website says they are for! :)2. As somebody who has done a lot of role-playing/cos-playing... I think most fans would laugh at anyone they saw wearing one of these costumes at a convention.And should I have a lady friend who wanted to be Felicia to my Peter Parker for a night, I'd get her out of that crappy plastic dress as soon as possible - not for the obvious reasons but because I'd be embarrassed for her wearing such a thing. :)

To be fair, DC's got lots of terrible merchandising too. I recently saw a 'Sexy Flash Girl' costume in a catalog- basically, it was a red minidress with the flash logo on it, a red mask...and then high heel gogo boots (also red).I'm guessing the designer didn't catch onto that 'running really fast' superpower.

See, this one doesn't bother me that much, since...a) despite being billed as a Sexy Flash costume, it is - at least on the three sites I checked - an adult sizes only costume. They aren't trying to market this to kids.b) For a sexy costume, this is rather modest. The boots are impractical for running, of course, but at least there's tights under the mini-skirt.Oddly enough, the Sexy Green Lantern costume looks like Arisia's original outfit...

I do think the Spider-Girl outfit is just silly. And I wouldn't really have any problem with these marketed to adult women (and adventurous guys!)... I even kind of like the Cap costume... but yeah, like you said. Girls sizes? Seriously.

Yeah. I just looked at the DC equivalent costumes and none of them are this bad. Heck, the only ones I saw aimed at young girls were Supergirl and Batgirl - and those costumes didn't even have exposed navels!

Have you seen some of the costumes women wear for Halloween? There's a "sexy" version of everything these days. This doesn't surprise me at all, it's just Marvel trying to make money off the current trend, same as everyone else.Wes A.

It's not the sexy costumes I find objectionable. Tacky, yes. Ill-advised, yes. Insulting to the many characters Marvel COULD license a sexy costume of but didn't in favor of "sexy girl Spidey" and "sexy girl Cap", yes. But not objectionable.What I find objectionable is the fact that they are marketing THESE particular costumes to young girls.

It is like the Flintstones, whenever Wilma and better got the credit cards, and they literally made a charge so they could charge things.Sadly I am now imagining women in these costumes raiding malls with charge cards held high. That should be the next comic, basically the same thing as Marvel Zombies.

Well, I'm just thinking that a speedster would still wear sensible footwear... even if they were capable of pulling their heels off and kicking their feet up for a relative moment before beating up the bad guy. :)